Digimon End Users
by gemma.legacy
Summary: A WIP Digimon story that is aimed at an older audience. This time it's not just Digidestined; the End Users, that can use Digivices. They must all learn how to work together, keeping the world safe from rogue Digimon and keeping themselves safe from short sighted humans. Please check my profile for images of the Digimon.
1. Episode 1

**Digimon – End Users**

**Episode One - Of all the roads to take**

Sara Lee stomped her feet to get out the cold of the October air, or at least she tried to, she was so penned in that even reaching into her bag for a tissue was difficult. She was beginning to wish she'd never agreed to go along with Nikki to this thing. Sara and her best friend were standing outside the Empire theatre in London's Leicester Square with a horde of others. Tonight was the première of the big movie from award winning director James Caprice, tonight was In Time night, at least according to Nikki. The thing that Sara found strange was that Nikki wouldn't even be seeing the movie tonight, she'd have to wait for it's general release like everyone else. No one standing behind the metal barriers was going to see this movie tonight, and Sara suspected that many of them didn't care about the movie, or what it was called, only who was in it.

The stars had already begun arriving and the photographers had already begun taking their photographs. Those flashing lights were going to give Sara a major migraine later.

"Ooh, look, there's Jennifer James-Crowley." Said Nikki, standing on her tip toes to get a better look, which was ridiculous considering they were at the very front of the horde.

"I thought she was in that other movie, er...Gimmie a Break?" Said Sara.

"She was, it's a rom-com." Replied Nikki.

"So, is she in this one or not?"

"No, she's more the comedy type, thrillers aren't really her thing."

"Then why is she here?" Asked Sara as Jennifer James-Crowley finished posing and moved on to signing autographs.

"Sara it's how it goes." Said Nikki in an exasperated tone "You get loads of celebrities turning up for films that they're not in. How would you fill the seats otherwise?"

Sara thought that maybe you could fill the seats if you gave a ticket to every person that worked on the film, surely they deserved that?

"Haven't you ever watched one of those movie première specials on T.V?" Said Nikki.

"Think I'm always doing something else." Said Sara, who didn't know who half of the people on the red carpet were.

"Well, it's good press, to have loads of celebs turn up. The photographers and ratzi-"

"Ratzi?"

"Paparazzi, honestly Sara! Anyway, the ratzi and that take pics of the other celebs and say where they were when they were taken, were the celeb was, not the pap, and then the movie gets free advertising."

"Makes sense I guess." Said Sara, who always had a flick through of Nikki's magazines but never really got the idea. Why was it so important what a celebrities hair was like that you had to put it down on shiny paper and sell it for 45p?

Nikki gasped, but Sara knew at once it wasn't _the_ gasp, that would be louder, and more shrill, and on a level only dogs could hear.

"It's Peter McGray!" Said Nikki, as the level of noise from the crowd increased. Peter McGray was a major hottie, or something like that, Sara had read it only last week.

"Isn't he just so...so...oh!" Said Nikki.

"Yeah, yeah, very oh." Said Sara in a vague tone as she fiddled with her mobile.

"Sara!"

"What?"

"You're not paying attention!"

"Oh, but come on Nik, you don't need me here, why'd you make me come along, you know I don't get this stuff?" Said Sara.

"I need morale support for when I meet him." Said Nikki in a nervous voice.

You're not going to meet him, he's just going to walk by! Was what Sara wanted to say, but dare not do so to Nikki. Nikki may have been a trend tracker and endless celebrity information hog but she was a really good person and had been there for Sara many a time. She and Sara had spent so little time together since Sara had started her new job that when Nikki had asked Sara if she would go to London with her she had jumped at the chance, thinking a good shopping spree was in order. Oh well, it may not be a new pair of FCUK shoes but at least they got to spend some time in each other's company.

Another limo pulled up and many a mobile was reached into the air ready to take video. The door was opened and Sara knew who'd gotten out even before she'd seen him. She put her fingers in her ears as a song of screams went up that sent the pigeons flying in fear of their lives.

Jaden Grace had arrived.

According to Nikki's mags Jaden Grace, whose name had made Sara snort with laughter when she'd first heard it, was the worlds number one star at the moment. Voted Wolds Sexiest Man for the past two years running (though Sara wondered by whom, surely they didn't vote in Afghanistan?) and _the_ man to be seen with. If the reports were to be believed he was also quite a womaniser with a string of actresses and models left in his wake. He'd been photographed with some of the most famous and desirable women in the world and had more fans than a sahara desert hot house on barbecue and ginger bear Thursday.

Sara wondered if her ears were bleeding.

Nikki was screaming along with the rest and saying something but Sara could hear nothing but the roar of the crowd. She wondered if Jaden Grace himself was wearing earplugs and was wishing she'd brought her own. The man himself began to walk along the red carpet, obscured to Sara by many a waving arm and bellowing head. He moved along their side of the carpet and began signing autographs, which was another things that Sara didn't get, it was someone's name on a bit of paper, who cared? Nikki moved back a little, holding out her own piece of paper ready. It was only then that Sara actually saw Jaden Grace for the first time. He was glowing. To Sara's eyes his entire body was surrounded by a halo of light coloured green at the bottom and moving into a blue so dark it made those things behind it fade away.

Sara lowered her hands from protecting her ears, noise forgotten. Her heart thumped as she stared in awe and apprehension at the actor. To those around her he was the hottest man alive and the star of In Time, but to Sara he was something else; he was an End User.

Sara reached up behind her left ear and felt the glossy quartz in it's cool metal base. She played her finger over the quartz until the vision subsided and she saw Jaden Grace as everyone else did. She tried to calm herself as he approached.

How she knew that the halo of light around him meant he was an End User Sara would never be able to say. She just knew it, like she knew that ice was cold and chocolate was good.

Jaden Grace continued along the line, signing every bit of paper thrust at him, reaching Nikki and signing hers as she mumbled something or other. He took a step in Sara's direction, standing in front of her and finding no bit of paper there he simply looked up at smiled, then froze. His smile retreated in the light of what he was seeing. Sara didn't move, didn't say a word. He was an End User, and so was she, he would see an aura around her too.

Jaden Grace stared for a few moments, then blinked twice and carried moving along the line as if nothing had happened. Now THAT was acting. Sara was more than a little impressed, she was still standing there with her mouth open and he'd made it seem like a momentary brain freeze.

Autographs signed and pictures taken Jaden headed into the cinema. Sara had the distinct impression that some of the light flashes from the cameras opposite were for her benefit. Stupid ratzi! What did she care though, they would never guess the truth.

"What was that?" Said Nikki, a look of jealousy on her face.

"Er...dunno." Said Sara, sounding quite convincing.

"He stared at you!"

"Look, Nik, don't get all accusational. Maybe I remind him of his sister or something."

"He doesn't have a sister!" Said Nikki. Sara knew without looking that Nikki wasn't the only one wondering what Sara could have done to get the attention of their precious Jaden Grace.

"Then a cousin maybe." Said Sara "Or a friend from school or something. Like that guy you saw a couple of months ago who you were convinced you dated in Year 9 but it turned out not to be him."

"Oh...yeah, yeah there was that. I guess."

Phew!

"I mean, what else is it gonna be, you'd have told me if you knew him." Nikki continued, with only the hint of a question.

"Course I would, Nik, I'd have introduced you." Said Sara, linking her arm through her friends. "Still, at least you got a longer look at him than most."

"Oh he's even more gorgeous close up!" Said Nikki, back on track again "I so tried to say something but it all came out wrong."

"Never mind, we'll come back for his next movie and you can see if you can get your mouth in gear to ask him out."

Nikki laughed "Yeah, me and every other woman here."

Now that Jaden Grace had gone by the crowds were moving off and back to where they came from. Sara and Nikki had put the money in for a room in a hotel so they didn't have to go back on the tube in the dark.

"Back to our luxury hotel then, Sara?" Said Nikki.

"Ah yes, a shared room with almost no space to put your feet and a wonderful view out of the window of some bins. What more could we ask for?"

* * *

Sara sat on a bench in Hyde park. Nikki was back at their cheap hotel and had protested about Sara going out when it was getting dark, but there were lots of people still walking in the park so had relented and began composing her next blog for when she got home.

"_Are you sure he was a End User?"_ Asked a voice that only Sara could hear.

"_What else would he be?"_ She replied, just as silently.

"_Maybe it's lurve!" _The voice teased.

Sara chuckled quietly _"Nikki will kill me if it is."_

The last of the day's weak sun was draining away, giving birth to a premature dusk as the clouds clustered about in all directions. The shadows merged into one another to form a darkness that seemed to be spread thickly around the trees and below the benches, hiding well the creature that lurked beneath the one Sara sat on.

The winged creature below the bench was why Sara had no need to be afraid even if the shadow's were to turn to proper darkness. The creature under the bench would protect her.

"_What will you do?"_ It asked, it's voice defiantly feminine.

Sara sighed. What would she do indeed. For months and months she had been the only known End User on the planet, sure there were others in the lower ranks and even a few Guidposts, but only one End User, until now. How long had this Jaden Grace been an End User? He could have been Jacked before Sara was. She'd kept it quiet from her friends and family, so why shouldn't a talented actor and Oscar winner be able to do the same to the world? Sara couldn't decide how to feel. She was jealous that she was no longer the only End User, but enthralled by the idea at the same time.

She felt behind her left ear, touching the Digivice there. She had quite a lot of control over it now, not like when she'd first been Jacked. She didn't even need to press many of the buttons any more, but sometimes it was nice to. She moved her finger to the metal setting and touched the menu button, flush against the base. She pressed it a few times, seeing the images come up and change in front of her eyes. No one else could see them, the signals from the Digivice somehow intercepted her normal vision and adapted it. She cycled through the menu's until she found the one she wanted.

"_Watch out for me will ya?" _She asked.

"_No problem, Sara."_ Said the voice.

Sara pulled up the light blue menu in front of both eyes and set it to 100% opacity. She could select it to be seen in just one eye or to be see through, so she wasn't blinded every time she needed it, but this time the situation warranted her full attention.

Before her eyes was a list of the Ranks; End User, Interm, Guidpost, Breaker, and Maltype. There was just one listing for Maltypes, which Sara was thankful for. There were multiple listings for Interms, a few Guidposts, and many, many Breakers. So far there had never been a listing for End Users, but now there was. She used her mind to bring up the sub menu for End User's and found Jaden Grace to be listed there. Well, that was it then, the D-Crystal had identified him as and End User, there was no denying it now. His name, age, and gender were listed, these things Sara knew already from Nikki's mags, but his partner was missing, the D-Crystal couldn't identify that. There was also a picture of him in the corner, a snapshot taken from when she'd looked at him, when he'd looked up and smiled at her.

She sighed again and rubbed her temples. Those stupid flashing lights had given her a headache after all. She would have to take some painkillers, she had a job to do now.

Brining up the options for Jaden Grace, Sara sent out the Signal.

* * *

Laughter, male laughter, could be heard when the elevator doors opened. Jaden Grace was leaning against the back wall of the lift, with his PA; Jimmy Clueco, doing the same. Jaden wore a a jet black Armani suit that went nicely with his mild tan and bright blue eyes. His short, light brown hair was styled to within in inch of it's life and would take hours to get back to normal.

Two supporting actors and an assistant director said their good byes to Jaden and Jimmy as they left the elevator and headed to their rooms. The elevator doors closed and the lift continued upwards.

"So," Said Jimmy, in his trans-Atlantic accent "Was a good night then?"

"Wasn't bad." Replied Jaden.

"Didn't like the after party though I take it?"

Jaden smiled as he turned to Jimmy "It was okay, but I did just have one in Paris, so, thought I skip this time."

The elevator doors opened and Jimmy and Jaden got out and walked down the hall. Jaden was never one to want to stay in the most expensive room but he would always end up having one of the larger ones. He took out his card key and swiped it through the port in the door, opening it.

"So, what about that brunette you were eyeing up?" Said Jimmy with a grin.

"I wasn't eyeing her up, just reminded me of someone is all." Said Jaden convincingly.

"You sure?" Continued Jimmy, not ready to give up just yet "I could have always got her name and number, could have bought her back for you then-"

"Whoa there." Said Jaden "You know Christine would hang me up by my unmentionables if I had women coming back here."

"Mentionalbes, unmentionables, I think it's all the same to Christine." Said Jimmy.

"Exactly."

"Anything you need before I go?" Asked Jimmy.

Jaden shook his head "No, you go on, go back to the after party if you like."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Tomorrow." Said Jaden with a smile as Jimmy walked off.

Jaden went into his hotel suit, closed the door behind him, and let the pretence drop. He leaned his head against the door as the façade he'd kept up for the two hours since he'd met that woman faded away, falling about him and disappearing.

"Is something wrong?" Asked a gender ambiguous voice from behind him.

Jaden reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out his Key. There were two parts to the thing that he'd been told was a Digivice. One part was the Key, it was made up of a circular, metal base that was moulded at the back so that it would fit behind the ear comfortably, and the quartz crystal which sat in the metal base like a diamond sat in a gold ring. For Jaden the base was a brassy blue and the crystal a vibrant green.

The second part was, worryingly, inside Jaden's head. You could get a lot done if you had the right face and paid the right people. Jaden was such a man and had been able to have a scan of his head without having to see a doctor or have the results go on his medical records. There was something inside his head. A cluster of sorts was behind his ear and functioned as a port for the Key but that cluster then spread, vine like, into his brain. It was everywhere, tendrils lighting up the scan he'd had done. The Radiologist had given Jaden the most worrying look but despite the fact that Jaden had somehow been invaded by...something, he felt fine, better than fine.

Without opening his eyes Jaden put the Key behind his right ear and felt it connect. He hated having to keep his hair short, it meant he couldn't wear the Digivice out in public, but he'd only just finished filming two weeks ago, and he'd had to keep it the right length for the movie.

"What happened?" Asked the voice.

Jaden turned to the brown ball like creature on the coffee table. The creature was spherical with four darker brown stripes than moved horizontally around his head from near his eyes to under his tail, though to describe it as a tail wasn't entirely accurate as it was more of a large stump. The creature also had little horns that were moulded around his head before sticking up. Jaden walked over and sat on one of the plush sofa's, heaving a great sigh and letting his head fall back.

"I saw someone today, Natamon." He said.

Natamon lightly bounced onto Jaden's lap. "You see a lot of people."

"This one was different."

"Why."

"An aura. She had an aura, I could see it."

Natamon gasped "You're psychic? You've suddenly become a psychic?"

Jaden chuckled "No you nut. It wasn't about me, well, not really, it was about her."

"I don't understand."

Jaden shifted his position, slouching down and getting comfortable. He reached behind his ear and felt for the menu button. He pressed, pulling up the green menu in front of his eyes, until he reached a page which had always before been blank.

"End User." He said.

"A what?" Said Natamon.

"She's here, in the Ranks menu, under End User."

"You said the Ranks menu was blank."

"It was, now it's not, now she's here." Jaden replied, pressing another button on the Digivice and bringing up her information. He made an annoyed noise and forced himself to get up, dislodging Natamon. He moved around the back of one of the sofa chairs and pushed it towards the large plasma screen. Sitting down in the chair he touched one hand to his Digivice, and the other to the T.V. The information on his Digivice appeared on screen. Natamon bounced over and sat on the top of the chair.

"Is that her?"

"Yeah," Said Jaden "Lemmie pull up her info."

He pressed the button again and the information on the woman was displayed.

"Well that wasn't exactly worth it, it only has her gender displayed." Said Natamon.

"Guess it can't tell me her name."

"Where'd you get the picture?" Asked Natamon, referring to the image in the corner.

"That...that was when I looked at her." Said Jaden, looking at the pictures of the woman looked wide eyed and shocked.

"Oh," Said Natamon "So it's like with Digimon then?"

"It would seem so, but what's an End User?"

"What's a Breaker, what's a Maltype? We don't know any of these."

"Yeah, but those are all empty. Why is-"

Jaden was cut short as the screen changed without him doing anything. A flashing icon and a message were displayed.

"'Incoming data from...question mark, type, End User, accept, decline?'" Read Natamon aloud.

Jaden touched his finger to his Digivice and clicked on 'Accept.' Another screen came up, this time showing a flashing dot with three question marks above it and another dot with Jaden Grace written above it.

"Ooh, it's a map!" Said Natamon.

"To what though?"

* * *

Jaden took the path that lead around the Oriental and into Hyde Park. He hated walking and using the Digivice at the same time but he couldn't rightly find whatever it was without the map now displayed in front of his eyes. Of course he could have put the information to his mobile, but walking around staring at that would make him a target. Not that he was particularly worried with Natamon around, but the Digimon currently resided in his zipped up back pack and it would take him a minute to get out.

It had taken Jaden twenty minutes to get out of the Oriental unseen. Sometimes he felt like a prisoner, no matter where he went. It was dark now, the sun having dipped well below the horizon giving way to night. He didn't really like the idea of being in Hyde park at night but he had to find out what that signal was.

He moved past some trees into an open area by the lake, as he did so the dot on the map he was tracing disappeared.

"Crap!" He hissed, reaching up to play with the Digivices settings.

"Leave it." Came a voice, floating on the wind.

Jaden slowly put his hand down and turned. He could see no one, nothing. He would have liked to say that the moonlight scattered off the water as the wind rustled in the trees but the lake was dull and flat and no such thing happened.

"Who are you?" He called in a voice which seemed to echo about him.

Footsteps fell lightly on the path, a figure emerged from the tree line and approached him. This was stupid, this was really stupid! Here he was, out in Hyde park at night, completely exposed and all because he'd followed a stupid dot!

The figure came close enough for him to make out who it was. He could still not see any detail, but the aura was unmistakeable.

"You." He said.

"Hello, Jaden Grace." Said Sara. "You er...might want to mess with you Digivices settings a bit, get rid of the aura you can see, it'll be a bit distracting."

Jaden didn't move. How'd she know about the Digivice?

"It's alright." she said "I've got one too, I saw your aura, you're an End User, like me."

"What's an End User, who are you?" Demanded Jaden.

"My name is Sara, Sara Lee." Said Sara "Yes, I know, named after a desert."

Jaden's lips had curled into a smile at the name but he quickly regained his demeanour.

"And what's an End User?" He asked, knowing now that more information would be added to his data on his woman.

"There will be plenty of time for that later. Now, I presume your partner is in that bag of yours, yes?"

Jaden's breath caught. She knew, she knew Natamon was in there!

"Let him out, if you would, it's got to be stuffy in that bag." She said.

Jaden slowly took the bag off his back and put it on the floor. He opened it up, allowing Natamon to bounce out.

"Interesting." Said Sara, after a moment "His name?"

"I'm Natamon." Said Natamon, looking over Sara carefully.

"Very good, and this is Lymon." Said Sara as another shape approached, this time it floated down to the floor where it glowed slightly, allowing Jaden to see it better. It was a chibi pixie creature with light beige skin and huge purple eyes. It had four twinkling pink wings and bubblegum pink hair. The small creature wore a little blue dress with a belt at the waist and a pointed hat to match. It's feet were an odd shape and seemed to have built in heels. It didn't look that much bigger than Natamon.

"Y-you have one too? A Digimon?" Said Jaden.

"And a Digivice, yes, it is what defines us as End Users."

"You never said what that was." Said Jaden, staring down at the twinkling little Digimon...was she wearing a hat?

"No, I didn't." Said Sara "Because it will be easier just to show you."

"Show me? Show me what?"

"Show us what you have Jaden Grace and Natamon." Said Sara, taking a few steps back.

"Blister Sparks!" Said Lymon as a series of twinkly sparkles, like fireworks, were let loose from her body, straight at Natamon.

Natamon cried out and jumped away.

"What are you doing?!" Cried Jaden.

No answer.

"Blister Sparks!" Said Lymon, again shooting the twinkling sparks at Natamon.

Natamon jumped into the air and "Brazen Bites!" He said, showering Lymon in brown shards. Lymon took the hit then came back with her own "Blister Sparks!"

Jaden had backed off after failing to grab Natamon out of the air. Before one eye, and half transparent, came an image of Lymon as well as the information on her. It said she was a Vaccine Type and classified as a Wicked Wisp Digimon, and what did In-Training mean? Jaden had little time to wonder as another shot came from Lymon's hands as she flew over Natamon, hitting him straight on.

Natamon cried out, what was he supposed to do against someone who could fly? He didn't even have legs!

"Natamon, go for her wings!" Shouted Jaden, suddenly spotting an opening.

"Brazen Bites!" Said Natamon, throwing the brown shards from his mouth straight up at Lymon's wings. She was hit hard and her wings rendered useless. She fell and hit the ground with a painful sounding thud.

"Very good." Said Sara "But let's see how you do against this."

In the light from Lymon's Blister Sparks Jaden, half crouching to avoid getting hit, saw Sara reach behind one ear with the opposite hand. From it she pulled a misty and stippled string of light, coloured pale blue. Her hands moved over the light, changing it's appearance.

"Lymon!" She said, reaching behind her ear again "Digivolve!"

"Lymon! Digivolve to...!" Said Lymon as her body was engulfed by the light that Sara had pulled from behind her ear and the little Digimon was lifted into the air in a glowing bubble. Her form was warped, changed, and the bubble broke. Another creature, about five feet tall, holding a staff and looking almost like a human girl landed on the ground. She looked like a more elaborate version of her other self with beige skin and large purple eyes. She had long blue hair and a slightly lighter blue jacket which was fitted at her torso but big and cape-like at her legs. She wore a baby blue skirt over a pink leotard and the sleeves of her shirt were slightly baggy and woven in a loose mesh to end with large pink cuffs. On her head she wore a pink witch-like hat with large purple sections to it and her mint blue staff matched her mint blue leg plates which sat over her calves. Her feet had chunky toes and were shoe-less apart from pink heels. Her staff had a purple crystal ball in it's tip from which protruded a mint blue crook. All down the shaft of the staff were two twirling plates, one in blue and one in pink that wrapped around each other.

"Magemon!" It said with a flourish.

"What the-" Said Jaden and Natamon together.

Magemon pointed her sceptre at Natamon.

"Gliding Ray." She said, causing a wave of rippling light to burst from her sceptre and over Natamon, blowing him backwards.

"No!" Cried Jaden, running after him.

He found Natamon by the base of a tree, slightly beaten looking, a few twigs raining down.

"Are you alright!?" Jaden said.

"I...I think so." Said Natamon in a trembling voice. "I thought she would kill me, Jaden, I think she could have."

Jaden picked him up and turned around. Sara was there, close enough for him to see properly since earlier that day. The creature that had been Lymon was standing behind her. Sara held up her hands.

"It's alright. It's fine, no more okay? You both did really well, just think of it as an initiation, okay?"

"Initiation into what!?" Said Jaden angrily, clutching Natamon to him.

"Police." Sara said, looking behind Jaden, confusing the actor until he turned and saw the blue flashing lights. She moved away and began jogging along the path, away from the approaching cop car "They'll have seen the commotion, come on."

* * *

Jaden didn't want to follow her, she had just attacked his best friend after all. He was tempted to run the other way and for a moment didn't know what to do. Regardless he couldn't stay where he was and risk getting questioned by the police. What would they do if they saw Natamon? Grudgingly and with much trepidation, he followed Sara.

The night air was cool and the water of the lake made no noise save for the occasional fish biting at something near the surface with a delicate 'splish'. It was dark in this part of the park, with few of the street lights nearby and none of their light quite reaching the spot where Sara and Magemon sat on a grassy bank. Jaden jogged to a halt nearby.

"I'm sorry about that." Said Sara when he approached "It was necessary."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean." Said Jaden in a dangerous tone, keeping his distance and holding Natamon in his arms, he had no intention of letting him fight again and would take the hits himself if need be.

"Have you ever heard of Dia?" Asked Sara.

"What?!"

"Dia, D.D.I.A? No, didn't think so. Few people will have. It stands for Digital and Data Interception Agency. It's a secret government agency fronted by Mithro Sciences."

Jaden frowned. He'd heard of Mithro Sciences "They do tests on animals and stuff."

"They do tests on Digimon." Said Sara.

Jaden said nothing. This woman had just finished giving his friend a butt kicking and now she was speaking to him like they were just having a casual conversation.

"Do you remember that explosion, the chemical one? The one that happened in Colorado, it was on the news everywhere?"

"Of course." Snapped Jaden "A chemical plant exploded, produced a big cloud of chemicals and everyone for miles had to be inoculated."

"What you heard was a lie." Said Sara, then paused, not really knowing how to continue. In the time that she'd worked for DIA she'd never had to go through this to anyone, it had never been her job, she was also put off slightly by the thought that he was an End User. Should she be talking to him like this, like he didn't know anything? Then again he really didn't look as if he knew anything about Digimon, he'd probably never even seen the Source. Of course having a Digimon partner would make many a person try to find out more about them. This was difficult.

"What really happened," continued Magemon, seeing Sara struggle "Is that a lab that was experimenting on Digital lifeforms was overrun by those lifeforms. The explosion was intentional, a self destruct system most of the workers didn't even know about, to protect the secret of what they were doing there."

"You expect me to believe that?" Said Jaden hotly "Who the hell are you people and why did you attack us?.

"If you told your family that you were friends with a bouncing, talking head, would they believe you?" Said Sara, ignoring the question for now..

Jaden opened his mouth to speak, then grunted and closed it again.

"As I was saying." Said Magemon primly, sitting with her legs crossed, back straight, and hands clasped neatly in her lap "The explosion was intentional, the effects were not. Normal explosions are not intrinsically harmful to Digital life, so it was rigged with computer viruses as well as normal explosives, the combination of these had unexpected side effects."

"The Digimon were destroyed, as hoped." Said Sara, frowning slightly at the thought of so much loss of life, both Digital and DNA based "But their data was not. There is currently no known way to permanently delete a Digimon, you can only return them to a data state."

"The chemical cloud you mentioned was actually a data cloud, made up of the Digimon killed during the explosion then blown away on the wind." Said Magemon "It was proof of what was going on and the US government stepped in. They found that exposure to the cloud could cause...abnormalities in humans. They quickly developed a 'cure' for the inhalation of the cloud."

"Medicine, a tablet, or pill for our friends from across the Atlantic, was distributed to those that would be affected by the cloud. All of this happened very quickly and most of the people around there didn't suspect a thing." Said Sara "The medicine itself was designed to gather up the data in the body and have it pass out harmlessly as waste water, meaning urine. The trial worked well and no one was reported sick. So, in light of the whole incident, the US government set up an agency, which, after gathering many partners and forming close ties with other countries, eventually became the D.D.I.A. Of course, no one really thought there would be a long term need for it. Natamon there is proof they were wrong."

"Why are you telling me all this!?" Said Jaden. He couldn't take all this. It was one thing to be, what Natamon called, a Digidestined, but it was another to have this weird girl and her mon attack him and then come up with this stupid story to justify it. Not that he'd heard any justification for what they'd done so far. Though, despite what he told himself, he wasn't leaving and going back to the hotel. He could easily avoid the cops if he walked a certain way back but this woman had piqued his curiosity. Besides this Lymon or Magemon or whatever she was called was the first friendly Digimon he'd seen besides Natamon, well...friendlier.

"Just listen." Said Sara patiently "This relates directly to you."

"No, I won't listen, you listen." Said Jaden, feeling his head starting to pound. "Why. Did. You. Attack. Us?" He said, emphasising every word.

Sara gave a sigh "I am sorry, but first of all Natamon is fine, isn't he? Digimon heal fast so you don't need to worry about that, second, the reason we did it was to test you, to find out what you know. Okay, sure." She said quickly, forestalling whatever Jaden had been about to say "We could have asked, sat you both down and given you a questionnaire, but that would not only have taken longer but not given us as much information."

"About the both of you." Said Magemon "It's important for us to understand you, know your limitation, strengths and weaknesses."

Jaden glared. If he'd been hearing this conversation as an outsider then perhaps he could have agreed with the two of them, but they'd just hurt Natamon and doing so, then making excuses for it, made Jaden's blood boil. Sara and Magemon looked at each other for a moment. Though neither shrank back from the man's stare both understood how he felt.

"Okay, we get that your angry." Said Magemon "That's fine, your allowed to be angry, but please also listen, listen and try to take in what we say."

"It's important." Said Sara.

Jaden was quiet for a moment then said "Talk then."

"Right, okay," Said Sara "Like I said, there is no known way to destroy the data that comes from a deleted Digimon. Remember, this data was coming out of people's bodies as waste water, where was it going then?"

"I dunno, a processing plant." Said Jaden with a shrug.

"Precisely." Said Magemon "A processing plant that had no process to remove the data, or even a way to detect it. When the water was cleaned it was pumped back out into the oceans, along with the data."

Jaden looked at them suspiciously, not wanting to believe a word they said. "So...you're saying all...this data, is out there in the ocean? So what?"

"It wouldn't stay in the ocean." Said Natamon.

"What?" Said Jaden, looking down at the monster in his arms.

"The ocean becomes rain, rain becomes lakes and rivers and then becomes the ocean again." The small monster said, then; "What? I saw it on the Discovery Channel."

"Natamon is correct, this is the stuff we all learned in school, but it's a simplistic version of the truth. What do you think happens to all that water that rains down on towns and cities? From what we're told it all goes into rivers and stuff, but have you ever seen that? Loads of mini rivers going into one big one? Why, even here, we have the Thames, but I don't see a million little rivers running into it every time it rains."

"Yeah, well, you wouldn't" Said Jaden "It goes into sewers and stuff."

"You're not following the process through Jaden. Think about this! When it rains outside the average home on the outskirts of London, rains on their driveway and patio, where does that water go?" Said Sara, it was a small mental leap but one he needed to get if he was going to understand his situation.

"I don't know, do I! I guess it must evaporate or something!" Shouted Jaden.

Sara smiled.

"What?"

"It evaporates. Water that came from the ocean, that contains indestructible data evaporates, releasing that data into the air. All over the world Jaden."

"So people all over the world are breathing in data?" Said Natamon, a fast thinker despite his appearance, and certainly faster than his partner.

Sara nodded "All over the world, yes. So far it only seems to affect homosapians, there has never been a report of an affect on any other species, animal or plant."

"And...how does it affect people?" Asked Jaden, fearing he knew the answer.

Sara reached up behind her ear and removed her Key, holding it out. Jaden shook his head in disbelief.

"No, that can't be it!"

"How do you think you got it? You just woke up one morning with it, didn't you. It was just there one day. How did you think that happened?"

"I-I don't know." Said Jaden. It was something he had wondered about for a while but had, over time, seemed irrelevant. He knew it worked and knew that it meant he had a connection to Natamon, what else mattered? Besides, he had thought there was some big reason for him to have one, not just a stupid little coincidence brought on by people's pee!

"When the cure was given to those who were vulnerable to the original infection, it was to prevent quite awful abnormalities occurring, but when the cure went through their bodies it changed the data. First of all it seems to have made it so that it only affects humans, second, it has changed it so that it only affects certain people. We don't understand much of it, but it would appear that the data is able to blend with certain DNA strands, producing this result. Though why it would we have no idea."

Jaden was silent for a moment then shook his head again "I don't see why I have to care about this. This is something that has happened to me and I've accepted it, why should I bother with how it affects anybody else?"

"You are an End User."

"What does that mean!?" Said Jaden, getting frustrated with how he kept asking the same question without getting an answer.

Sara sighed. "There are five Ranks; End User, Interm, Guidpost, Breaker, and Maltype."

"I know that! I've seen it, you're listed under End User, it was blank before."

"As it was for me." Said Sara with an almost sad smile. "End Users are those who have D-Crystals and Digimon partners, like you and I."

"D-Crystal?"

"The name we gave to the Digivice." Said Sara, holding hers up then putting it back behind her ear "I have listings for all the other types, but until today I didn't have a listing for End User. You are Digidestined, Jaden."

"Natamon said that." Said Jaden, looking down at his friend who smiled up at him "but he couldn't tell me what it meant."

"That's another thing we don't understand; how Digimon have knowledge of these things without ever being told, but a Digidestined is basically and End User; one who is destined to save the Digital World, and in turn, the Real World."

"Save the world?" Said Jaden with a mocking chuckle "Like using different light bulbs, my house is already completely solar powered so I think I've done my bit."

Sara smiled, then sighed, standing up "It's difficult to explain, it would be easier to show you."

"Show me how?" Said Jaden as he backed of a little, worried that another butt kicking was in order.

"There is a Dia base in this city, we can go there tomorrow."

"Can't, I'm flying to Italy tomorrow, got a flight booked first thing."

Sara looked worried. She checked her watch, it read 10:37.

"Blast! I've gotta get back to my hotel, my friend is waiting, she'll be worried if I don't get back." Sara said as Magemon stood, then Magemon became yellow light and shrank, sparkles floating away from her, and she was Lymon again.

"How did she do that?" Said Jaden, wondering if Natamon could do the same.

Lymon flew up and landed on Sara's shoulder as she walked away. Jaden sighed and turned to leave.

"Jaden." Said Sara. Jaden turned, Sara wasn't facing him. "I've not told anyone about you yet, but...it's my job to do so. I have to report any digital or data based activity and must especially report the existence of those who have D-Crystals. More than anything we need more End Users."

"What will you do?" Said Jaden after a moment, realising that she felt torn.

Sara was quiet for a moment, then "I don't know. Just be careful, Jaden, you're more vulnerable than you realise."

_**To Be Continued...**_


	2. Episode 2

**Digimon – End Users**

**Episode 2 – Not set in Stone**

Come rain, hail, or ankle deep snow the protesters would be there. Sara had always wondered why Dia was fronted by a pseudo animal testing laboratory, didn't it just make them a target? The car slowly rolled past the shouts and placards that were banged against it. It was the same every morning, not that Sara worked every morning. A car would, three days a week, pick her up from her home in Kent and take her to Mithro Labs on the outskirts of London. It looked like one of those official government cars, which she supposed it was, but she would have preferred to travel to work in something less conspicuous, but security was of the utmost importance and the protesters were the least of their worries. Keeping their anninimity was necessary. Lymon sat in the baby seat next to her, the mon had protested at first at having to sit in a babies' seat but had been forced to accept that if they had to brake quickly no amount of flying would help her. Though the fact that she was reading the Daily Telegraph did make it look weird, well, more so than usual.

There was a light drizzle splattering down the windows as the car got past the line of protesters and turned into the long drive up to the main building. Mithro Sciences was based in a large, white mansion that had been in the Longfarth family for generations. Of course, what could be seen was only a small amount of what was actually there. Much of the structure went underground and connected with another building miles away, which was officially a chemical produce development company though in reality it was just another part of Dia.

The car pulled up to the side of the building and rounded a corner. Though the grounds were surrounded by high hedge lines and patrolled by armed guards no one wanted to risk having their face seen by someone one the road, so the front entrance was rarely used.

Sara unclipped her seatbelt and did the same for Lymon. She got out of the car, Lymon floating behind her, her paper folded under her small arm, as they headed into the building. Sara put her face to the moulded plate on the on the inner door and allowed the scanner to see her eye. The lock made a happy beep and the door opened. The inside of the mansion looked just how you would expect it to look but with a functional edge. Most big old mansions were just for show, no one actually lived in them. Like Buckingham Palace, when you were a kid you thought the Queen lived there and ate her Frosties on the sofa but in reality much of it was off limits to everyone, with the pompous velvet ropes to let you know that everything behind them was worth more than your life insurance. The Mithro mansion had ornate paintings and hideously expensive chandeliers but it also had work stations and a tea lounge. This was a place where people worked, it just looked nicer than the average office.

Sara headed for one of the labs, politely greeting the other workers along the way, she had something she wanted to check out.

"Oh, Sara." Said one of her colleagues, looking up from a report he was holding.

"Morning Terry," Said Sara "That the new information on the data line?"

"Yes!" Said Terry, his face lighting up even as he struggled to hold two clipboards and a cup of coffee "We've got some new ideas on that, we were wondering if you'd had any more luck with Magemon."

"No luck so far." Said Lymon from Sara's shoulder before Sara could answer.

"Why, what do you know?" Said Sara.

"Well, you know how we thought it was just a case of getting the right sequence? Well, we now think it may have something to do with the length of the data line."

"The length of it?"

"Yes, more data may require a bigger line."

Sara thought about that "Yes...yes that would make sense. But I've only ever been able to get one length."

"Yes, we're working on that too, if you could come down to D8-wait! No, sorry, er...was meant to say, got sidetracked, Durain wants to see you."

Aw, poo. Thought Sara, though aloud she said "Oh, right, thanks. I'll come see you guys later then."

"Yes, please do, we'd really like to check out this theory."

* * *

Sara walked the halls of the mansion wondering if Terry and his team were right. It made sense that the length of the wispy line that only she could touch would inhibit certain levels of Digivolution. As she walked she also wondered why Durain wanted to see her. That wasn't good.

She walked into the large, cream coloured office whose door was always open if it was okay to enter.

"Ah, Sara, thanks for coming, shut the door would you?" Said Durain.

Aw, poo!

Sara shut the door behind her and walked over to the desk, Lymon sitting on her shoulder having handed her paper to a random mansion worker. Despite the size of the office it was sparsely decorated. One wall was covered in floor to ceiling windows and the floor was covered in a big red, expensive rug. There were two chandeliers hanging from the ceiling but other than the desk and a few extra chairs there was little else in there other than the filing cabinets. Sara had often wondered why Durain would want an office which seemed so empty.

Durain himself was pale skinned and mousey blonde of hair and horribly handsome, he was the head of the Mithro Sciences company, both in name and in reality. His grandfather had set up the company years ago and it had passed onto Durain when his father had been institutionalised. More importantly though, Durain was a Guidpost. It was his eyes, it was always their eyes. Durain's were a light, bright blue. The sort that made you envious and drew you in, though, usually, you could then forget about them and carry on, but when Durain decided otherwise...

"Sit down, Sara." Said Durain in his American accent, just like Jaden's. No! Don't think about Jaden!

Sara sat and tried not to look Durain in the eyes.

"How'd you're outing yesterday go?" Asked Durain.

He wanted to talk about her time off with Nikki? That couldn't be right. "It went good, I suppose. Nikki got to see all the stars and we had a nice day of it."

Durain smiled, reminding Sara that it wasn't just his eyes which could draw you in.

"I'm glad you got to spend some time with your friend. I'm sorry that we work you so hard, we wouldn't do it if we didn't need you. If it were up to my superiors you wouldn't leave the mansion unless you were on a mission, but I think it's very important for people to be able to spend time away, lest we forget what we're fighting for."

Sara smiled pleasantly but said nothing, this couldn't be why he'd called her.

Durain stood and walked over to one of the cabinet's that sat against the inner wall. He opened a draw and took out a file. "Have you spoken to Terry yet?" He asked.

"Yes, I saw him on the way in." Said Sara, happy for the conversation to be going elsewhere "He told me his team had some theories on the Data Line."

"I suppose it makes sense." Said Durain, partly turning back to Sara as he opened the file. "Higher levels generally require more data and so a bigger line might be in order."

"There are exceptions though." Said Sara.

"Yes, but so far we don't know if any of those are real." Said Durain as he leaned against the cabinet. "We can't take imagination for fact."

Sara said nothing but personally didn't see why they shouldn't. The Source had always been right so far.

Durain looked up at Sara "I want you to work with Terry's team, you and Lymon both."

"We'll do whatever we can." Said Lymon "I'm sure I can do it, I just need something."

"But you don't know what." Said Durain, having heard it many times before.

"Sorry." Said Lymon.

"It's okay. Sara, take a look at this." Said Durain, holding out the file.

Sara got up and walked over, taking the file.

"More data analysis from Colorado. Doesn't tell us anything new though." She said.

"Don't you think that's strange though?" Said Durain "We've been studying the site for years and have learnt nothing beyond the original report. Much of the structure still exists but we get no new information from it. It's like someone went in and wiped away anything useful."

"Maltype?" Said Sara, looking up.

"Possibly, but we can't say for certain."

"I can go back if you like. Lymon and I are happy to."

"We are, we are." Said Lymon.

"You know it's not as simple as that." Said Durain.

"But you know that there may be things only and End User can find." Protested Sara, closing the file

Durain sighed. "Regardless of my feelings on the issue it has been decided that you _will_ go to the site. I don't think it's a good idea but it's now out of my hands."

Sara's eyes widened with glee, finally!

"Don't get so excited, Sara. You're vulnerable and it's not a field trip. You won't be going alone we're sending a team with you."

Sara nodded, trying to to look too enthusiastic. "Yes, I understand, thank you." She'd wanted to go back to the Site for ages now but had always been forced to leave it up to the lesser ranks. People considered she and Lymon to important to put at risk and sending her away to a place which had exploded and caused all this mess in the first place was a definite risk.

"It's been decided that you'll leave as soon as possible, so we've got you a private jet for tomorrow morning. Make your arrangements and then report to Kankada at Heathrow." Said Durain, taking back the file.

Sara nodded and headed away towards the door. Then a connection, light and airy, ran through Sara's body. It felt like being touched by the most gentle angel. Sara knew well what that meant. She spun around, slapping Durain's hand away from behind her ear. His eyes were wide.

"So it's true!" He said.

"You had no right!" Shouted Sara, feeling invaded from the touch to her D-Crystal.

"I had every right, Sara!" Said Durain getting angry "You've found an End Type! How could you even consider keeping this a secret?!

Sara looked away. He'd tricked her, Durain had tricked her! Sure he'd wanted to see her about going to Colorado but he'd really just wanted to touch her D-Crystal so that he could update his own information! Now he knew about Jaden, and there was nothing she could do. It was a trick that anyone who had a D-Crystal could pull; touch the Digivice of another and know what they knew.

"It's not our place." She said quietly "It's not our place to decide for him."

"No," Said Durain "It's not, but by keeping this a secret, even for a few hours you've left Jaden Grace wide open."

Sara said nothing, arms folded in a sullen posture.

Durain shook his head at the End User, why did they have to be so stubborn? "We'll have to intercept him in Italy." He said, heading back to his desk.

Sara frowned "How did you know he was going to Italy, you couldn't have got that from the D-Crystal?"

Silence.

"Durain?" Said Sara as she walked back over to the desk.

"A month ago we received intelligence that lead us to believe that Jaden Grace might have a D-Crystal."

Sara's eyes were wide with shock "You knew, you knew about him?!"

"No, Sara, we didn't know, we only had an idea. We needed conformation."

Sara felt as though someone had punched her in the stomach. "You used me." She said in a low and harsh whisper "You used me! You made sure I would go to that première so I would see him! Oh my! You rigged the competition, the one that Nikki won!" Nikki had entered a competition in one of her magazines whose prize was two tickets to see the première of In Time, Nikki had one the third prize, a day trip to London, expenses not included.

"I'm sorry, Sara." Said Durain genuinely. "We needed an End User to identify him."

"Why didn't you just ask me!?" Bellowed Sara, feeling that if they were going to rig the competition they could have at least rigged them to get the first prize. Lymon flitted away from her shoulder, not wanting to be near her partner when she was this angry.

Durain looked down at his desk. "Those weren't my orders."

Sara stared at Durain, fuming. "Since when did you follow such orders?" She hissed.

It was true, previously he would never have gone along with such a scheme. He knew that if Sara had simply been asked she would have been happy to find out if Jaden Grace was an End User, but it was deemed that secrecy was the best way. Perhaps the higher ups wished to test Sara. That wasn't the point though, the point was that Durain went along with it when he should have refused. It was all that Maltype's fault!

Seeing that she would get nothing more out of Durain Sara turned on her heel and marched out in a dangerous huff, Lymon following her.

* * *

How could he? How could he do this to her? It was one thing to use her, she knew what she was getting into when she joined Dia, but to involve Nikki, that was what had really made Sara angry. She sat in a chair in D8, one of the lab rooms, while Lymon was put through more tests. The lab itself looked like something straight out of sci-fi, with a bit of hospital thrown in; it had many a flashing light and more than one machine that went 'ping.'

Terry had the little Digimon hooked up to various machines via wires like those used to monitor someone's heart beat.

He looked over to Sara and wondered if he should even attempt to speak to her. Something must have happened in Durain's office, but they needed to continue with the tests.

"Er...uh...Sara?" He said, Sara glared at him "Oh, er...if it's...um...okay, could you, uh...D-Digivolve-"

Sara reached up behind her left ear and pulled out the Data Line, letting it hover in front of her. It was set to Lymon. She moved her hands through the mist like light, pulling and pushing at the stipples to change their position. She'd done this many times now so knew without even looking what Magemon's code was. She reached up behind her ear again and touched the crystal.

"Lymon, Digivolve to!...Magemon!"

Terry and his team hovered over the monitoring equipment as Lymon Digivolved into Magemon. Strangely, Magemon had stayed connected to the equipment, which was something no one had ever quite understood considering she was changing in both size and form.

"Anything?" Asked Magemon, eager for a positive response.

"Maybe," Said Terry cryptically "There are some things here we've not seen before but we'll have to analyse it before we can tell you if it means anything."

"The more I think about the length of the Data Line it really does seem to be the answer." Said Magemon.

"But even if it is the answer how do we increase it's length?" Said Terry as Sara quietly fumed. "It should be simple enough to reach the Champion level if the Source is to be believed."

"Maybe it's wrong." Said Magemon.

"It's never been wrong before." Said Sara, finally joining the conversation.

Magemon groaned "It's not fair, all this waiting, I want to Digivolve."

Sara smiled at her partner, then grew serious again and turned to Terry, "What doesn't make any sense about the length theory is how one length can work for three different levels. Magemon has much more data than any Baby Digimon, most Rookie's do."

"It's possible," Said Terry, thinking aloud as all good genius' did "That the Data Line is a certain length to take into account all potential forms of a certain level. We know that a Rookie can have much more data than Magemon does, or much less."

Sara thought about that one "So...the reason Magemon can Digivolve to Rookie on one length of Line is because she doesn't need any more room on the Data Line with her level of data?"

"Possibly. If so then the Data Line you've always used is enough to take into account for Magemon's 17.49 giga bytes, but it might be the case that if she were of a larger file size when in Rookie form that you would have to increase the length of the Data Line."

"So how much data can this length of Line handle?" Asked Magemon.

"There's no way of knowing." Said Terry "We can't even make an estimate until you Digivolve."

"Which she can't do until we figure out how to increase the Line length." Said Sara with a sigh, tapping her fingers over her lips in thought.

"We know at least that she can Digivolve when you're life is threatened without the manual use of the Line." Said Terry.

"But my life has been in serious danger before and she still couldn't Digivolve to Champion." Said Sara.

Magemon squirmed a little at that, she didn't want to be reminded of the time that Sara had nearly died because she'd failed to protect her.

"Yes, there seems to be some anomaly there." Said Terry.

Sara rubbed at her forehead "Okay, regardless Magemon and I are shipping out tomorrow morning, so you'll have to get whatever information you need now, I don't know when we'll be back."

Terry nodded and he and his team set to work once again.

* * *

Jaden Grace stared out of the window as his thoughts ran in circles in his head. He watched how the setting sun played across the clouds as they flew overhead. It was always nice when he could see that happen, so often he wasn't flying in the right direction or at the right time to see the above-cloud sunset or sunrise.

So much had happened in a short time, he'd only known Natamon for a few months and had quickly grown accustomed to his presence. He wouldn't want to be without the little talking head any more.

It had been while filming Gears that he had met the little monster. He and the production crew were out on the Nevada flats. People thought that being a Hollywood actor was all glamorous but so often you had to put up with far less than satisfactory working conditions, often those that the average worker simply wouldn't put up with. A small unit had been set up in the middle of the desert and on that day many of the crew had come down with heat stroke, putting an end to filming until they could be replaced or get better. Jaden had spent the day lying on his bed in his trailer, even lying there and doing nothing made him sweat. The heat was so intense that he'd become a little delirious and, when he'd felt an itching behind his right ear he thought was just an insect bite and ignored it. It was probably for the best that he wasn't really aware of the Key growing out of his head, such a thing would have made him panic, more than panic, he would have thought he was becoming a Borg or something, that resistance really was futile. It was bad enough when he woke after the sun had set to find a strange crystal and metal thing stuck behind his ear. It had come off easy enough but had left a small red mark. At first he'd convinced himself that someone was just playing a prank on him but the device didn't look like any technology that he'd seen before, besides, it glowed. From the green crystal came a faint glow that changed as Jaden ran his fingers over the crystal, it was quite beautiful for something so scary.

It was as he was really beginning to get worried that Jaden heard a commotion from outside. People were shouting, kids were shouting. There were some kids on the set, children of some of the crew members but they shouldn't have been out so late. Jaden put the device in his pocket and opened his trailer door. What he saw wasn't kids messing about, but Digimon. Though, of course, at the time he didn't know that. At the time Jaden saw a talking bowling ball with wings and a talking brown head.

The brown head had seen the light from Jaden's open door and bounced over to him, crying out for help, and asking to be protected from the other creature. The bowling ball had made some comment that Jaden was too shocked to really hear and had then attacked him, throwing what looked like a large syringe filled with a green liquid. Well, you didn't spend seven months learning self defence and martial arts for The Night Lion to stand there and be attacked by a bowling ball with wings. Jaden caught the syringe, spun around, and threw it right back with great precision. It had struck the bowling ball, injecting the green liquid. The bowling ball had then heavily flapped away, muttering to itself in a pained and irate voice.

Jaden spent that night talking to the brown head who called himself Natamon and said he was a Digimon, which was apparently short for digital monster. The other one had been called DemiDevimon, whatever that meant, and the thing that had grown out of Jaden's head was a Digivice, or digital device, and owning one meant you were a Digidestined. Jaden shouldn't have believed a word of it but when you were talking to a head and had just been attacked by something that looked like an ugly bowling ball had mated with a bat you became very open-minded.

Natamon didn't know where he had come from, he only knew that he'd been travelling for months on his own when DemiDevimon had tried to delete him.

Jaden and Natamon had been together since that night.

Jaden was brought out of his memories by a hoste-cabin crew person offering him champagne. He shook his head, no, and continued to stare out of the window. One good thing about being a Hollywood A lister was being able to fly First Class so easily, though he did feel guilty about it knowing the regular folks were stuck back in coach like cattle. Of course, the one who he mostly felt sorry for was Natamon, stuck in the cargo hold, pretending to be a stuffed toy, Jaden couldn't even talk to him without his Key on, which he couldn't wear as it would be far too obvious. He thought about Sara and Lymon, or whatever she was called. That was another thing, how had Lymon changed her form? In his Digivice Jaden had listings for a few Digimon spread out between a couple of different categories. The menu he found the options for; Baby, In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega. He had no idea what these words meant, other than it seemed to indicate how strong a Digimon was. He had checked before he'd left for the airport and he'd found Lymon listed under In-Training along with Natamon and DemiDevimon, but Magemon was listed under Rookie. He had never assumed that one Digimon could appear in two different listings. Then again he had never presumed that a Digimon could change it's form or that such creatures existed in the first place. He wondered if Natamon could do it too. What had Sara done exactly? He'd only seen her pull that glowey line from her Digivice, or D-Crystal or whatever it was called, mess with it a bit, then touch her D-Crystal again, then Lymon had...changed.

He felt the Key sitting in his pocket and longed to put it on. Coming to a decision he stood and walked into the aisle and to the toilets. Finding a free one he went inside and locked the door behind him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his Key, slipping it behind his right ear.

"_Natamon, how are you?" _He asked, calling silently to his partner.

"_I'm okay, it's not so bad really, there's a kitty in here!"_ Said Natamon excitedly, having wriggled out of Jaden's back pack knowing that he could get back in and make it look as though nothing had happened.

Jaden smiled _"Is it a nice kitty?"_

"_Oh yes, most defiantly, it purred at me and rubbed it's head up against it's carrier. I think it's a show cat 'cos it looks like a leopard!"_

"_Oh, right, I think that's called a Bengal, or something."_ Said Jaden.

"_Bengal? But it says 'Surreptitiously Inverted Gold' on the carrier?"_

"_Might be it's show name."_

"_What's a show name?"_

"_Like, at home it's called Whiskers or something but when it's being shown it's given some long and usually stupid name." _Said Jaden

"_Yeah, this ones stupid alright."_

Jaden chuckled _"I was thinking I might try doing that thing that Sara did, to get Lymon to change shape."_

"_You mean, Digivolve?"_

"_It that what it's called?"_

"_Pretty sure, yeah."_

"_Okay, well, wanna see if I can pull one of those things from my D-Crystal?"_

"_Is that what we're calling it now?" _Said Natamon.

"_You want me to try it or not?"_

"_Go for it!"_ Said Natamon enthusiastically.

Jaden took a deep calming breath, not sure what he was doing. He'd touched the D-Crystal many times before but nothing had ever come out but, well, now it felt different. He stood up straight, closed his eyes, and reached behind his right ear with his left hand. A tingling sensation in his fingers had him snapping his eyes back open. He pulled his fingers away from his head and out in front of him. There it was! Right there, like it had always been there! A shimmering, wispy green line of light that was stippled, with bits rising up from the main line as well as reaching down. This one was defiantly different from Sara's though, hers was blue to begin with and this one seemed a different shape in terms of where the stipples were.

"_I can't believe it was that easy!" Said Natamon._

"_Maybe we just had to be made aware of it." S_aid Jaden as he gazed at the line with a shocked grin on his lips.

"_What did Sara do next, to make Lymon Digivolve?"_

"_Er...she messed with it, changed the stipply bits, then touched her ear again."_

"_Try it, try it!" _Encouraged Natamon.

"_Well, I dunno, I'm not sure that's a good idea right now. What if you change? I have no idea what you'll end up looking like, how am I supposed to get you off the plane if you look like Magemon?"_

"_Awww!"_

"_Look, we'll try after we land, when we get to the hotel, how about that?" _Offered Jaden.

"_Yeah...I guess." S_aid Natamon, disappointed.

Jaden broke the contact with Natamon and looked at the line. He touched his D-Crystal again and watched the line disappear like smoke blowing in a gentle breeze.

* * *

The sun glasses and baseball cap was a stupid idea, it just made him more obvious, but Jaden always _felt_ more exposed if he didn't wear them. He was mobbed by the airports' photographers as he pushed his luggage along. All he could do was keep his head down and smile pleasantly. Besides, there were bodyguards there who'd met him when he'd gotten off the plane. He only had a single case and his backpack, in which Natamon was hidden, but still pushed his things on a cart rather than dragging them around. The photographers finally gave up with a little persuasion and let Jaden be on his way and his security hung back to give him some space as he walked towards the exit.

Moving through one of the larger areas he passed many a passenger waiting for their flight to be called, he felt guilty again; when he flew he could go to the V.I.P lounge and wait in comfort. Many a head turned to look at him, a man with long hair looked up at him then quickly looked away and...touched behind his ear. Jaden kept walking.

_Ignore it, just ignore it, you're being paranoid. _He thought.

Further on another man, again with long hair, who was sitting reading a magazine, reached up behind his ear, seemingly to scratch. Jaden's heart began to pound.

"_You're more vulnerable than you realise." _Sara's words rang through his head. Were these people End Users? No, how could they be? Sara had said they were the only ones. He cursed his short hair once again, wishing he could put on his Key and see if the men came up in his listings.

Another man touching behind his ear caught his attention. Would his bodyguards be able to deal with them? What would they do? They wouldn't pull anything in such a public place, right? Which meant they would wait until Jaden was out of the airport. Maybe they would wait in a taxi for him and kidnap him! Every horrible thing he'd ever played out in a movie came back to him now, why did he always have to pick movies with a psychological edge?! He had to do something!

He stopped walking and looked down at his cart, he frowned. One of his bodyguards approached.

"Is there anything wrong Mr. Grace?"

"I think I've forgotten something." Said Jaden. He moved around to the side of the cart and lifted his backpack, being careful with Natamon. "It's not here."

"What isn't here?"

"Uh, I had another bag...must have left it...somewhere." He said, trying to sound hopeless.

"It's okay, sir, it's probably still on the carousel, would you like to wait here while one of us goes back?"

Jaden shook his head "No, let's all go, I'm not even sure if it has my name on it."

The bodyguard nodded and waited for Jaden to turn his cart around and begin the journey back. As they walked Jaden saw the man with the magazine 'scratching' behind his ear, the same one as he'd touched earlier.

Jaden made a big show of looking for his bag for twenty minutes or more, re-tracing his steps in case it had fallen off the cart. When he was deep enough in the airport he swung the cart to the left and headed towards a random terminal.

"Sir? Sir, where are you going?" Said the bodyguard as Jaden headed the wrong way, jogging after him and gesturing for the others to follow.

Jaden found himself in another area, gate 5 according to the sign. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket and handed it to the bodyguard that had just come up next to him.

"Here, go buy me a ticket to where ever the next plane from here is going."

"Er...I thought you were meant to be going to the hotel?" Said the bodyguard.

"Please!" Said Jaden.

"Alright, sir, just wait here." Said the bodyguard, making a gesture to the others as he jogged off.

Jaden pushed the cart along a little more and aligned it next to some seats, sitting down on the end one. He wanted to talk to Natamon, the brown ball was pretty much right next to him, but even if he whispered someone would hear him, there were just too many other people.

Five minutes later the bodyguard came back holding a ticket.

"Okay, here's the next flight, it's leaving soon so you need to board now."

"Great." Said Jaden, snatching up the ticket and taking back his wallet.

"You want me to get your luggage dealt with?"

"Oh, yeah, please-but, be careful, some delicate things in there."

The bodyguard nodded and took the cart away.

The boarding procedure went smoothly and soon Jaden was heading through the gate and down the tunnel to the plane. He'd dismissed the bodyguards, not wanting anyone to follow him, not caring where he was going, so long as it was away.

"Oh, First Class, this way please, sir." Said the Italian cabin crew woman, indicating where he should go.

Jaden found his seat quickly and shuffled into it. He sat there as he waited for everyone to board, biting his carefully manicured fingernails. He was, this time, on the right hand side of the plane, which meant that his right ear, and more importantly the space beside it, would be hidden. Surely no one would notice now if he put on his Key? He carefully slipped it out of his pocket and leaned on his hand, slipping his Key behind his ear as he did so. He sometimes wondered why he was so paranoid about wearing it, couldn't he just say it was a new type of hands free for his mobile? Of course then people would want to know where he got it and he couldn't say it was a prototype forever.

"_Natamon?"_ He said.

"_What's going on, Jaden!"_ Came the shrill reply.

"_Calm down, we're back on a plane."_

"_I know that! Why are we back on a plane?"_ Said Natamon, who couldn't have missed being put into the cargo hold if he'd wanted to.

"_I'm sorry, but I think we might be in trouble."_

There was a pause, then; _"What do you mean?"_

"_There were these guys, in the airport, as I was leaving. They all had long hair and they all touched behind their ears when I approached. It happened more than once too. I dunno, guess I might just be getting really paranoid."_

"_I don't know, Jaden, that sounds real suspicious to me."_

"_That's how it felt, so I said I'd lost something to get out of there then got on the next plane to anywhere."_

"_Why don't you check your data, see if they come up in the Digivice Users section."_

"_Darn it! Yes, thought of that before but forgot, checking now."_ Said Jaden as he moved one finger to his Digivice and brought up the menu in one eye. He cycled through until the menu 'Digivice Users' appeared. First it had been empty, then Sara Lee had been listed under End User. Jaden gasped, then tried to turn it into a cough in case someone had noticed.

"_Well?"_ Asked Natamon.

"_They're in here! I'm not going mad they're really in here!"_

Natamon was quiet for a moment as he thought _"What listing are they under?"_

"_Breaker."_

"_I don't think I like the sound of that. I really wish we'd asked Sara what this stuff meant."_

"_Me too."_ Said Jaden, who was now regretting his dismissal of Sara's offer. He'd been so suspicious of her, naturally so, but now he could be in real danger.

"_Sara warned us about this."_ Said Natamon.

"_I know."_

The cabin crew ran through the safety procedures speaking first in English then in Italian, Jaden didn't listen.

"This is your pilot," Came the audio "welcome aboard flight 237, Rome to Colorado Springs, we hope you enjoy your flight."

_**To Be Continued...**_


	3. Episode 3

**Digimon – End Users**

**Episode 3 – D-D-D – Digivolve!**

Sara Lee dozed lightly on the private jet, owned by Dia, this time under the name of Camarada Chemicals; even Dia wasn't stupid enough to allow a plane to be under the mantel of an animal testing lab. The 21 year old End User lay with her chair set back, wearing her red and black mission uniform which was designed to be good for all but extreme weathers, though her very long brown hair was still loose it would be tied back in a neat bun later.

Magemon sat across the short isle in another chair, eating sushi with chopsticks, eating and drinking were the only time she would reveal the lower half of her face, it usually being covered by a purple mask, even then she only took it down for each bite or sip before pulling it up again.

Sara's Digivice gave a beep that only she could hear. She put her finger to the crystal, answering the call.

"_It's Durain."_ Came the voice of the Guidpost directly into Sara's head.

"What's up?" Sara answered aloud.

"_We lost him, Jaden Grace. He got away from us in the airport."_

"How the Helmon did that happen?" Said Sara.

"_He noticed our operatives and fled. They tried to follow but he managed to give them the slip and boarded another plane. This is what happens, Sara, when you keep secrets."_

"No." Said Sara, not willing to take the blame for this "This is what happens when you have operatives who don't know the meaning of the words 'under cover'. He saw them, yes?"

"_We think so, which means he'll have listings for Breakers now, if he didn't before."_

"I don't think he did. My question, Durain, is why you don't sound too unhappy about this?" Said Sara, referring to the slightly amused tone in Durain's voice.

Durain gave a short chuckle _"Like I said, he got on a plane, Sara."_

Sara said nothing for a moment, then; "Can't be."

"_Yes, it can. He's heading for Colorado, his plane is due to land three hours after yours. That man really needs to learn how to run away, he didn't seem to think that we could just check for his name in the ticket sales."_

"He's an actor, not a spy." Sara snapped, rubbing her eyes "So, tell me Mr. Guidpost, is this just a big coincidence, or more like fate."

Magemon, having been allowed to hear the conversation in her own head, sat watching with interest.

"_I shouldn't really tell you things like that."_ Said Durain, reeking of self satisfied amusement _"But, just for you, I'll say that I'm leaning towards the latter." _

"I suppose it was too much to hope that none of it was connected." Said Sara with a sigh.

"_True."_

"What do your bosses say?"

"_Well, they deplore the fact that we lost Jaden but are happy that they decided to send you out to Colorado. They're chalking it up to fore thought and careful planning on their part, they don't believe in fate."_

"How could it have been careful planning, they didn't know Jaden would get on a plane for Colorado?" Said Sara, once again despairing of the idiocy of the higher-ups.

"_They don't think like that, Sara, they don't carry D-Crystals, at most some carry D-Pseudo's, but those don't give them the insights we have. At any rate, you've been ordered to send out a call to Jaden once you get to the Site, luring him there."_

"This is all so underhanded, Durain, I don't like it."

"_Sara, he may be in danger, I told you that. Even if he weren't an End User he's involved with Digimon. That means we have a duty to protect him."_

"Or manipulate him."

"_You know it's not like that." _Durain said softly.

"Tell me Durain." Said Sara "This information you got, this intelligence, where did it come from and what did it say?"

"_The exact message was 'Jaden Grace is in danger, Dia must save him and his Digimon from those around him, and from himself.'"_

"What is that supposed to mean?" Said Sara.

"_We're not sure, but we think it came from Manaphrey."_ Said Durain.

"Oh, great." Said Sara. Manaphey, as she called herself, was a Guidpost. Sara and Dia knew of only a handful of them and Durain was the only one who didn't make sure everyone thought he was mysterious. Durain worked for Dia, and was happy too, but the other Guidposts went where they wanted and did what they liked. They were never malicious, or were never known to have been, but it was impossible to pin them down. They lived up to their name, like guide posts staked out on forks in old muds roads that pointed in various directions, telling you which way was which but whose writing was always to old and faded to read properly. Durain was a bit like that, but he was more the sort who didn't even bother to give directions, the head of Mithro Sciences kept to himself and Sara knew he was holding so much back, so many things he knew, to gently nudge people in the right direction, but at least he was there and helping. The other Guidposts they knew of would never even tell them their real names. Sara was sure that the name Manaphrey, for example, was taken from a Pokémon.

"Okay," Sara said with a sigh "Guess there's no real reason to think she's lying."

"_No, and she was right about Jaden."_

"But what does, 'from those around him' mean?"

"_We don't know, but I suppose it gives us reason to presume that one or more of those he keeps in his company has ulterior motives. We won't know more until we can interview him and find out who he is close to or spends much time around, which is why we need you to get him to the Site."_

"And then what would you have me do?" Asked Sara.

"_Show him around, Sara, reveal to him the things you keep secret from almost everyone. We need him to trust you and there is no reason for us to keep things from him now. The more he knows the safer he will be."_

Sara didn't really believe that last bit, but gaining Jaden's trust was a good idea at least.

"Okay, I'll do it and contact you later."

"_Understood, good luck."_ Said Durain before Sara felt the connection break away.

"So." Said Magemon.

Sara sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the seat. She knew that Magemon, under that mask, was grinning. "So, we do as we are ordered, we go to the Site and send out the signal to get Jaden to follow us."

"And what if he doesn't come?" Asked the Digimon sensibly.

"He did before, and right now you and I are the only ones he knows won't do anything bad to him."

"Won't do anything bad? I'm sorry, but did you miss me blasting Natamon in the face?"

"Magemon." Groaned Sara.

"I'm just saying. We want the two of them to trust us but the first thing we did was fight them. I know why we did it, I mean, it doesn't even seem that Jaden knows about Digivolving or he would have had Natamon do it, but..."

"I know, Magemon, I know, but so far I'm the only other End User Jaden's met. Those guys at the airport would have been listed under Breaker, which must sound a bit worrying if you don't know what it means."

"Think he's been practising with the Data Line?" Said Magemon, quickly changing gears.

"Might have done, he saw me do it so he should be aware enough of it now to do it himself."

"I wonder what Natamon Digivolves into?" Said Magemon, a dreamy look coming over her face.

Sara gave an amused scoff "You just want someone to be a mentor to."

"I'm going to teach him everything I know!" Said Magemon.

"Shouldn't take long." Said Sara with a smile.

"Hey!"

"What, you walked right into that one, what did you expect me to say?"

* * *

No airport photographers, no ratzi, and, most importantly, no one with long hair trying to hide how they were reaching behind their ears.

Jaden's sudden trip elsewhere had obviously confused more than one set of followers. He couldn't help but smile as he walked to the exit of the airport, there would be loads of press waiting outside the hotel he was meant to be staying at, all waiting, ready to take his picture and mob him, sticking cameras up his nose and such, and he wouldn't be arriving. He wished someone would take him a snapshot of that.

Once again he walked without his Key on, wondering if he should just go ahead and get extensions. Of course, that wasn't the most pressing matter. For one thing he was now in Colorado, which was where that explosion had been that Sara had said was to do with Digimon, for another thing he didn't even know where he was going to stay. Of course, neither of those things were the most pressing matter either.

Jaden dragged his case along behind him, Natamon in the bag on Jaden's back. He hailed the next taxi to come along and jumped in, putting his suitcase in the seat beside him and his back pack on his lap.

"Where to?" Asked the cab driver.

"Er, the nearest good hotel." Said Jaden, not really minding where he stayed so long as it wasn't a pit.

"Er," Said the cab driver, thinking fast. He needed one that was close enough to be realistic but far enough away to give him the highest possible fair. "That'll be the Holiday Inn, it's a few miles from here."

"That's fine." Said Jaden.

The cab driver pulled the car out, honking at someone who was simply trying to drive along the road.

Jaden sighed and sat back after putting on his seat belt, he was tempted to put on his Key regardless of the questions or looks he might get, things were getting too much for him. Everything was happening so fast and he felt as though he was being suffocated, with barely time to take a breath.

The taxi rolled past small bland houses and open desert. Jaden turned to watch the planes taking off and landing in the distance over the baked grey-brown earth. He was tired, he'd slept on the plane but it had been fitful, full of dreams about being captured and watching as Natamon was taken away, the little monster crying out for help and Jaden powerless to do anything. The car continued on past buildings large and small and more than one that Jaden was sure was a hotel. He didn't care though. Turning away from the airport the cab driver steered them around a small bend and up to two hotels, one right next to the other; they pulled up by the second.

"Here we are, Holiday Inn, hey...wait a minute." Said the cab driver.

Jaden read the amount he owed himself and paid the driver. "Keep the change." He said as he opened the door and hauled his stuff out.

The cab driver looked down at his cash and back to his fair as the man headed up the drive and into the reception.

Wasn't that Jaden Grace?

"I'd like a room please, a nice one." Said Jaden in a tired voice.

"Oh, yes ,of course sir." Said the reception woman, not missing on who was standing in front of her, unlike the cab driver. "A few of our best rooms are still available."

Jaden had clearly said 'a nice one' not 'your best one' but he couldn't rightly tell her he didn't want the best, she would think he was being patronising.

He pulled out his wallet and dropped a random credit card on the desk then went through the check in procedures; signings and what not. He also didn't miss the blue carbon paper slipped under the current page of the signing book but said nothing about it.

A bell boy came over and took his case with a stupid grin; obviously looking for a large tip. Jaden carried Natamon in his backpack and followed the bell boy into the elevator. He didn't notice the décor or the furnishings as they moved through the halls to his assigned room being too tired to care about much. The bell boy opened the door and put his case inside, then went on about how good the room was and which did what as if Jaden didn't know. Jaden's wallet appeared again and a $50 note was pulled out and waved in front of the bell boy's face.

"You can have it if you leave now." Said Jaden.

A moment's hesitation, then the note and the bell boy disappeared, the door closing behind them. Jaden took off his backpack and opened it. Natamon bounced out and onto the floor with a gasp.

"Fresh air! Fresh air!"

Jaden shuffled over to the sofa and fell onto it, face first.

"Jaden I'm hungry." Said Natamon. Jaden obviously wasn't right but first things first.

Jaden reached up and flapped his hand about the sofa side table until it came into contact with the telephone's receiver, which he held up for Natamon.

Natamon bounced over to the table and sat by the receiver.

"Yes, can I help you?" Said the voice over the phone.

"This is Jaden Grace, room 15." Said Natamon.

The guy at the other end of the phone frowned "Er...yes sir?" Jaden Grace didn't have a kid...did he?"

"I would like four cheeseburgers, some waffles with syrup, a portion of egg fried rice." Said Natamon, Jaden held up two fingers as he held the phone's receiver "Sorry, no, make that two portions of egg fried rice, a big bowl of chocolate cookie ice cream with two spoons, ooh, ooh, and I want some sausages, no, hot dog sausages, er..three of them I think, and some soda, uh...five Dr. Peppers, got all that?"

"Er...yes sir, we'll...we'll get right on that, sir." Said the voice with much confusion.

"Okay, good, and don't worry about brining it all at once just go ahead and bring whatever is ready-" Natamon said, Jaden growled "Oh...no, er, just bring it when it's all done, okay."

"As you wish, sir."

"Good." Said Natamon.

Jaden let the receiver fall back down, thumping it a few times to get it in the right place. Letting his arm fall to the floor Jaden groaned into the cushion.

"People are going to think I'm a pig, Natamon." He said, his voice muffled.

"Jaden, you've been feeding me for months, people must have thought that ages ago!"

Jaden groaned again. Natamon jumped down and sat next to his head.

"So, are you going to tell me what happened? I know something did."

Jaden turned to look at Natamon, then reached down into his pocket and put on his Key. The Digivice made an update. Jaden rolled over onto his back and pulled his mobile out of his jacket. He touched the finger of one hand to his mobile and a finger of the other to his Digivice. Cycling through the menu's he brought up the list for Virus type Digimon. Scrolling down he finally settled on one, a new entry. Selecting it the information on the Digimon was displayed on Jaden's mobile.

"What is that?" Asked Natamon slowly, creeped out by what he saw.

Jaden sighed deeply and closed his eyes.

~~~Jaden dreamed bad dreams. People were trying to take Natamon away, calling him a dangerous animal, they were holding Jaden back, stopping him from rescuing his friend who was begging for his help.

Jaden woke up. Something was different. He was on the plane headed for Colorado but something was wrong, something had woken him. It wasn't a sound, it was the absence of a sound he'd become so used to he'd stopped hearing it.

He turned his head to the side, looking across the cabin. No one was there. He threw off the blanket and gingerly got up, looking around the first class section. There was no one around, no one in the seats and no airline personnel to be seen. The sound he could no longer hear was the hustle and bustle of a busy plane during the day.

Breathing heavily, frightened and hoping that he was dreaming but knowing he was not, Jaden moved from his chair and walked down the isle, pushing aside the curtain that separated the first class section from that behind it. No one was there either. He continued down the isle, his heart thumping, going from section to section, all the way to the end where the seats were squashed in and people should have been trying desperately not to elbow the person next to them.

A frightened moan escaped Jaden's lips as he found himself in that scary place that children went when they had nightmares. Inside every adult was a child and now the one inside Jaden was crying and wanting his mother. Jaden reached into his pocket for his Key only to find his pocket empty. Panicking he reached into every pocket he had then re-traced his steps to the front of the plane, his eyes scanning the floor for a sign of his precious D-Crystal. He got all the way to the steel door that protected the pilots beyond it. He hammered on it and kicked at it, but nothing happened and no one came.

"Natamon!" He cried.

A sniggering reached his ears.

Suddenly the fear of being all alone was replaced by the fear of not being so. He turned and walked back into the first class section.

He felt as if his heart was trying to collapse in on itself in an attempt to hide as he looked out into the first class section and saw...something.

It sniggered.

It was small, and black, and further back so Jaden carefully walked down the isle toward it.

He got close enough to see the detail and frowned as he realised what it was.

"You're...you're a Digimon." He said.

The small black, winged Digimon sniggered. It's eyes were closed.

"Humans are...so pathetic." It said in a light voice that was like nails on a chalkboard.

"What do you want?" Jaden demanded "What have you done with everyone?!"

"Silly human." It said, then slowly turned it's head towards Jaden, it's eyes opening.

Jaden backed off as he saw those listless eyes looking at him. Half closed but still large the Digimon's eyes were slightly bulbous and they shimmered in lights of pastel green and blue, they looked like crystals...like the crystal of his Key.

"Who are you?" Jaden said in a breathless whisper as those awful eyes continued to stare at him.

"Don't worry, little precious." It said "I won't hurt you, I'm just here to observe...for now anyway." It said, sniggering again "Silly human."

"Mr. Grace." Said a woman's voice.

Jaden spun with a yell, turning to the cabin crew woman who looked alarmed.

"Are you alright, sir?" She asked.

Jaden looked back to where the Digimon had been but it was gone. People were once again in their seats and the hubbub of the plane was once again sounding in his ears. Jaden ran back to the next section and found it to be full of people. He didn't need to check the others to know that everything was back as it should be. He felt in his pocket. There it was, his Key, like it had always been there.

"Sir?" Said the woman, now looking really concerned.

"Uh...sorry." Said Jaden, looking a bit desperate "think I was sleep walking."

"Oh, all right." Said the woman, then gesturing to his seat "why don't you come and sit back down for a minute."

Jaden nodded and tried to give a smile. He sat back in his seat, his blanket on the floor where he'd thrown it. He adjusted the chair to a sitting position and tried to calm his breathing.~~~

"Jaden." Said Natamon "I don't get it, how'd you see this, how'd you get this registered without me seeing it?"

"I don't know." Said Jaden, still looking at the Digimon's information on his mobile. All of Jaden's other listings for various Digimon were only there because Natamon had actually seen the Digimon. The pair had learned early on that Jaden himself couldn't add a Digimon to the listing.

"Mega level." Said Natamon in awe, looking at the Digimon on Jaden's mobile. "Virus type, but, Jaden, look at that! It's only 5 giga bytes, same as me! How can a Mega be only 5 giga bytes!?"

Jaden shook his head. He really didn't know how all this worked and was once again wishing Sara was around to help him out. Then again, would Sara know what had happened to him, or if he told her would she think he was crazy?

He ran his thumb over the name displayed for the Digimon.

"BlackMarineAngemon."

* * *

"But I can't go right now, he won't find us there." Said Sara.

"We've been ordered to take you to the Site, Ms. Lee." Said Carn Demeter, leader of the Alpha Breaker unit.

Sara groaned to herself. This was stupid, how was she supposed to obey both orders at the same time? Sure she needed, and wanted, to go to the Site, but if she was also going to get Jaden there then she would have to send out the signal before she left. The Site wasn't on any maps and there were no specific roads that lead to it, you really had to know where it was to find it.

"Look," Said Magemon, one hand on her hip and the other holding her staff "What you're proposing makes no sense and, in case you've forgotten, Sara and I outrank you. We are going back and meeting Jaden, _then_ we will go to the Site, taking him with us. How difficult is that to understand, really?"

Carn tried not to look mutinous. He didn't like Digimon, they were hard to deal with. The only reason he had a Digivice himself was for the advantages in communication and technology it provided. Okay, so it wasn't the natural D-Crystal, but it still allowed him to see in the dark and communicate with the rest of his team by thought alone. If the army could get their hands on such a thing Dia could make billions, but that sort of thing was not for a soldier such as himself to decide, only to ponder on occasionally.

He nodded reluctantly "Then we will await your orders, Ma'am." He said.

"I told you not to call me that." Said Sara, who was sure Demeter was doing it to annoy her.

They were out in the dusty lands of Colorado, a barren area where few plants could grow and the ground was a depressing grey. The Site was here, and the Alpha Breaker Unit had set up camp not too far off. Sara could see The Site from outside the tent. The building was long with a large circular 'belly' in it's middle. The Belly was not only the ground level section, but also the raised section, which was on legs and three stories above the ground. This area was a great dome and looked like whomever had designed it had a thing for cheap 70's B-movies.

The sun was setting over the horizon giving the area a cold, bland light.

"Think he'll come?" Asked Magemon coming up beside Sara to look out over The Site.

"For the seventeenth time, yes, I think he will, I think he and Natamon both will, why do you keep asking?" Said Sara, irritable after the repetitions.

"I dunno." Said Magemon, fiddling with her sceptre "Just eager to work with another Digimon for once."

"There are other Digimon at Dia." Said Sara.

"It's different with them, they can't Digivolve, their partner's aren't End Users."

The pair were quiet for a few minutes as the sun sank further and the ground lights around the tent started to come on, dull so as to not attract too much attention.

"When should we send for them?" Asked Magemon.

Sara looked at her watch "We'll head back now, it should be dark by the time we get to the hotel, we'll leave it an hour after that and then find somewhere to meet them."

* * *

With their feast over and done with Jaden and Natamon stretched out on the sofa watching T.V. The Digimon was snoozing lightly after his big meal and Jaden wondered for the millionth time where the little Digimon put all that food. Natamon was nearly always hungry but he really was nothing more than a ball with a face, it was like there was some sort of miniature black hole in his body where all the food went. Jaden was just thankful that the food didn't come out in as vast amounts as it went in.

Jaden flicked through the channels aimlessly as he laid on the sofa, Natamon on his chest. The actor wasn't really paying attention to what was on, he was still too focused on BlackMarineAngemon. It was registered as a Digimon but, for some reason, his D-Crystal couldn't tell him anything else about it. All the other Digimon he'd met were at least registered with their level and type. All Digimon, it seemed, could be classified as Data, Virus, or Vaccine, though Jaden had little idea of what that really meant. Natamon and Magemon were Vaccine types, and DemiDevimon was a Virus type, so did that correspond to good and bad respectively, if so, what was Data?

So much of this was confusing to him and again he began to wish he'd not been so eager to depart from Sara, who seemed to know what she was doing, but at the time he'd really needed some space to get his head together.

A series of musical beeps told Jaden that his phone was ringing. He fished around in his pants pocket, trying not to to disturb Natamon. Pulling out the phone he flipped it open and answered the call.

"Jaden?"

"Chris?" Said Jaden, surprised, though he really shouldn't have been.

Christine Junicci was a 24 year old Italian model, raised in the States, and very successful after being scouted by a leading modelling agency at just 17. She wasn't the biggest known model in the world but she had a good career and made a good life for herself.

"Of course it's me," Said Christine "Who else is it going to be, Jaden where the hell are you? I've been trying to contact your for hours now!"

"Oh, sorry, turned my phone off on the plane while I was sleeping, forgot to turn it back on until a little while ago." Said Jaden, now feeling guilty for not even having considered Christine in all this.

He and Christine had met at a night club and hit it off immediately. Well, she was gorgeous, which was always a good start, then she was interesting and polite and caring too. Jaden had dated far too many 'party girls' in his own opinion (and his mother's) so someone like Chris was a nice change and they seemed to suit each other.

"So...where are you?"

"Er...Colorado." Jaden said, quickly trying to construct a lie to get himself of the hook and getting nowhere.

"What the hell are you doing in, Colorado? Jaden, I went to the hotel and they said you'd never shown up, then you're manager found me, who is a complete mess by the way, and asked me to try and contact you, then your mother called because someone called her and now she's worried and everyone is going nuts. Jaden, why the hell are you in Colorado? You don't just disappear like that, Jaden, it's not fair to those who care about you!"

Jaden cringed as she spoke, almost seeming to turn in on himself like a tortoise.

"Chris, no, listen, I'm really, really, sorry, I really am. Please don't be mad at me, stuff happened and I...I just, just..." That was the thing, what did he tell her? Christine didn't know about Natamon and Jaden didn't feel right about telling her.

"Just? Just what, Jaden? Just decided to abandon people and break promises and go back on your contract? You know that if you don't have a really good reason why you skipped out any production company involved will come after you for the publicity they lost."

"Chris, I am the publicity company for In Time, my own company produced it!"

"You know what I mean! You made promises you didn't keep and made us all worried and you can't even tell me why!" Said Christine, her voice rising in tone. Jaden had to calm her, had to get her on his side or her voice was going to get more and more high pitched to the point where it would be painful.

"_Not that I've really had the chance."_ Thought Jaden, but wasn't about to make his girlfriend more angry by saying it.

"Look, I just needed some space." He said "Not from you, before you ask, not from you. From everything else. It just started to get to me, y'know, going from one place to another, waking up on a plane and having to ask someone where I am?"

"But you've done this loads of times before, why now?"

"I don't know." Lied Jaden "I guess it just got on top of me, I felt like, like if I went I would go nuts."

"Jaden," Said Christine, sounding as if she both loved and despaired of her boyfriend "Why didn't you just call and tell me this?"

"Don't...don't know."

Christine sighed "Jaden, if you need to talk you can talk to me. I know what pressure you can be under, I get the same thing and sometimes I feel like I'm gonna explode or faint and I don't know which. I get why you felt you had to leave, but I wish you hadn't of run away. What am I here for if not to care for you?"

"Chris." Said Jaden, despising himself for lying so easily to his girlfriend.

"It's my job, right? You care for me and I care for you, and if one of the ways I care for you is to give you some time, then I will. I'm not going to tell you to do your job and come back if that's not what you want, though I have no idea why you went to Colorado."

"Just boarded the first plane I saw about to depart." He said, telling the truth for once.

"I see...well, if you feel you need time, I'm not going to nag or anything, I'll give you time, but next time just say you'll call me, just to let me know you're okay. I'll understand, and, if I need to go off somewhere all of a sudden, you can do the same for me. Okay?"

Jaden smiled genuinely "Okay, Chris, thanks."

"Okay...I'm going to leave you to chill now, call me soon though, kay?" Christine said, her voice coming through with an obvious smile.

"Kay, I will."

"See you, bye."

"Bye." Said Jaden, and closed his phone, ending the call.

"Is everything okay?" Asked Natamon, having been woken during the conversation.

"Yeah, Natamon" Said Jaden, a warm feeling creeping through him "Everything's okay, you can go back to sleep, and soon we'll go out and do a bit of exploring."

"Okay, just a little nap...first." Said Natamon, falling easily back to sleep.

Two hours later and night had truly fallen. Jaden carried Natamon about in his arms, not fearing that people would be secretly taking shots of him. For the moment no one knew where he was, and even if they did it would take them time to get to him, especially as many of the ratzi were waiting for him in Italy.

The area around the hotel was largely residential, so Jaden and Natamon walked the streets and wondered idly what it would be like to live there. Jaden so rarely got to just walk about a place he was visiting like other people could, though he was sure if he could all the time he probably wouldn't.

"Jaden?" Whispered Natamon as they walked past another bland house.

"Yes?"

"Is it me or are we being followed?" Said the Digimon.

"I was hoping it was just me." Said Jaden in a whisper. "But you got that impression too?"

"Yep, but it doesn't fell like a Digimon, more like human, and more than one."

"Think it's those guys from the airport?"

"No idea, Jaden, but I think we should head back to the hotel."

Jaden agreed and worked his way around the block, heading back in the direction of the hotel. The quickest route was past a spacious car park which contained few cars at this time of night. It was dangerous to go into an open space, but there were some people about over the other side of the car park, heading in the general direction he was. Jaden crossed, picking up speed as he began to feel more vulnerable.

"Jaden, behind us!" Whispered Natamon harshly.

Jaden made a sudden duck and rolled forwards as a fist filled the air where his head had been. He stood and turned to see a man dressed like an M.I.B agent taking off his sun glasses. Sun glasses! At this time of night?!

"Who are you?" Jaden demanded.

"That is none of your concern, Jaden Grace." The man said as more ran through the car park towards them, cutting of Jaden's escape.

Jaden turned slowly, counting them, seven in all. He noticed too that the people he'd been counting on to give him protection were away and out of sight.

"If you come with us quietly neither you not your Digimon will not be harmed. This is your only warning." Said the first man.

Jaden said nothing, keeping his senses attuned for any attack. So, they knew what Natamon was, did they? Well, fine then, that made it easier for him. Jaden opened his arms, letting Natamon fall. The Digimon bounced off the floor and into the face of the first man, crashing into his nose. The men advanced on Jaden quickly. Jaden blocked a fist with one arm and swung hard with the other, his hand curling into a fist automatically and connecting hard with the other man's jaw. One of the men made a grab for his arms from behind. Jaden leaned back into the man and kicked his legs up, bringing himself right over the man and to a standing position behind him where he brought his elbow sharply to the man's exposed neck.

Natamon jumped at another man's leg and bit hard, making him cry out in pain. The man tried to punch Natamon off but the Digimon had already moved away.

"Blister Bites!" Said Natamon, aiming his attack at the man's head, who cowered and tried to move away as the shards rained down on him.

Jaden swung a leg around to connect his foot with another man's head as he advanced on him. Another came for him and he swiftly brought his forehead down on his nose, breaking it with a crunch. He turned and punched another man in the face then dipped and swung his leg around to trip him up. As he righted himself, without thinking, he put his hand to his Digivice and brought out the Data Line.

"Stop him!" Shouted one of the men, though Jaden was no longer keeping track to know who was who.

Jaden turned and punched another man in the stomach then swept his fingers over the Data Line, trying to find the combination.

Natamon bounced hard off the floor and knocked another man down as he tried to advance on Jaden then flipped in the air.

"Blister Bites!" He shouted again, raining down his attack.

Jaden rolled out of the way of a leg swung for his head, the Data Line following him.

"Enough of this!" Said one of the men.

Jaden watched as the man reached into his jacket and pulled something out. Jaden saw the grip of a gun.

No matter how good he was at martial arts he couldn't out run bullets.

Natamon felt his partners fear, and the world slowed. Natamon looked to where Jaden was staring and saw a gun being slowly revealed.

"_I must protect him."_ Natamon thought as he fell to the ground _"I must!"_

Natamon watched as, in slow motion, the Data Line changed, each stipple shifting into another position with an audible thud. Jaden looked confused, the man with the gun looked frightened as he brought the gun up and his fellows either fell to the floor or began to right themselves from the fight.

Jaden, in a flash, reached up and touched behind his ear, touched the D-Crystal. The Data Line streamed away from him and surrounded Natamon.

"Natamon Digivolve to...!"

Natamon saw the world be enveloped by a black curtain as the Data Line span around him then hit him in the chest, scouring hard into his data. Lights flickered as Natamon grew arms and legs, a tail sprouted from his elongating body. His face grew forward and his eyes parted to the sides. His teeth became large and pointy and a flick of 'hair' grew from his head. Finally he grey a thin tail with a diamond shaped end.

"Beatmon!"

Jaden frowned at the newest form of his friend. Light had spilled from his partner but now all was dark again, the car park lit only by the orange glow of the street lamps.

The men dressed in black looked at Natamon's Digivolution. He was small, only about twice the height he had been before, they began to laugh. The man with the gun grabbed Jaden by the collar and swung the gun around.

"Enamel Bite!" Bellowed Natamon as he launched at the man with the gun and sunk his large teeth deep into his arm. The man cried out in pain and dropped the gun which Jaden was quick to kick away and under a nearby car. Jaden stood and vertically kicked the man to the chin, snapping his head back, rendering him instantly unconscious. Jaden swivelled around and ran for one of the other men, Beatmon leaping from the ground onto Jaden's shoulder and then at another man.

"Prism Claw!" He said, raking one of his clawed hands down the man's chest as Jaden dealt a heavy blow to another.

"For God's sake it's just a Rookie!" Cried one of the men.

Beatmon re-bounded from the injured man's chest and flipped in the air.

"Sonic Blast!" He said, landing forcefully on the ground in front of the other men, producing a shock wave and knocking them down.

Jaden couldn't help but grin, this fight was just starting to get interesting! Though he was also aware that they might all have guns, and now he noticed that they'd attracted an audience. He turned, scooped Beatmon up and ran for the hotel.

**To Be Continued...**


End file.
